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Manjaro?

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:53 pm
by totheatom
Have been using Kubuntu for a while, but strongly considering switching over to Manjaro because it seems like my ideal distro in so many ways. Anyone hear use it? Would it be any less ideal for music software than Ubuntu or other options? I'd like to install Reaper, Bitwig, Pianoteq, u-he plugins - things like that. Would appreciate any insight you can provide.

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:11 pm
by lilith
Manjaro is based on Arch Linux, so I guess it could be a little bit more fiddling than an Ubuntu or Debian based distro.

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:31 pm
by totheatom
Thanks for the reply. Any idea to what extent?

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:46 pm
by lilith
totheatom wrote:Thanks for the reply. Any idea to what extent?
Maybe the archlinux guys can tell you more. I don't think that it will be a big problem.

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 4:44 am
by CraigPid
I really like Manjaro. It's super easy to install compared to Arch. You would just have to learn to install things with pacman instead of apt. I think configuring it for audio is quite similar to Ubuntu.

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 4:53 am
by nikgnomicradio
I have been using Manjaro XFCE on main machine for just over 4 years, really responsive and very reliable

Stock Manjaro kernel is equal or better than lowlatency Ubuntu/Debian
The extra layers of testing and unstable branches prevent or mitigate a lot of problems before stable branch
package manager is different name, but much same functions

Updates are rolled up and released every week or two, always with forum release notes and support for problems
Busy and active forum, good community support and generally very friendly

Most of the main audio packages in KX Studio and AVLinux are maintained in community repository (Reaper, Bitwig, Pianoteq here)
Arch User Repository will have everything else (uhe-hive-vst, uhe-podolski-vst, uhe-triplecheese-vst)

I have MX18 and Ubuntu Studio installed on backup desktop - very little difference between these 3 OS

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 4:59 am
by nikgnomicradio
Manjaro has their own package manager pamac on most desktops, not yet for KDE
and cli version intended to be similar to debian/ubuntu (eg sudo pamac-update)

pacman and many other arch package managers are available too

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:27 pm
by Musicteacher
I use antergos, which is also arch based.
So far, my experience was very good. I have another machine running KDE Neon (which is Ubuntu-based), and find that the software availability for musicians is better with Arch based distros (linuxsampler, for instance, or the non - tools).

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:52 pm
by totheatom
Fantastic information and really helpful. Thank you all so much for sharing. I think I'm going to go ahead and make the switch with confidence. :)

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:18 am
by wjl
Just tried it for the last day or two and wrote about it on my blog over at https://wolfgang.lonien.de/2019/01/i-ha ... t-look-at/

Very positive first impression, could easily get used to it if I didn't have a great working Debian/KXStudio machine already.

Cheers,
Wolfgang

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 5:24 am
by nikgnomicradio
could easily get used to it if I didn't have a great working Debian/KXStudio machine already.
Debian does make more sense for a stable DAW

There are couple of good developers maintaining a many of audio packages in Manjaro community repository
I think all the KX packages are there, but I only use Carla at the moment

There is a guy on Manjaro forum trying to finalise an openbox setup with audio packages loaded to run Ardour - RecBox
XFCE has been my only choice for ages, but that looks quite interesting so far

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:38 am
by totheatom
wjl wrote:Just tried it for the last day or two and wrote about it on my blog over at https://wolfgang.lonien.de/2019/01/i-ha ... t-look-at/

Very positive first impression, could easily get used to it if I didn't have a great working Debian/KXStudio machine already.

Cheers,
Wolfgang
Just read your blog post. How cool! Kudos for checking it out and reporting your impressions.

One question:
Why did you use a VM to demo Pianoteq? They have a standalone Linux option - I've been considering the purchase as well and have been demoing it in real time (lag free) without any issues on Kubuntu. Quite appreciate it, actually!

Re: Manjaro?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 4:48 am
by wjl
totheatom wrote:Just read your blog post. How cool! Kudos for checking it out and reporting your impressions.

One question:
Why did you use a VM to demo Pianoteq? They have a standalone Linux option - I've been considering the purchase as well and have been demoing it in real time (lag free) without any issues on Kubuntu. Quite appreciate it, actually!
Thanks!

And I don't use commercial stuff on my underlying Debian OS if it's not first tested elsewhere (like in a VM). The same goes for giving my ID to some vendors - I only do that after I'm sure that I want some product.

So for me it was a pleasant surprise to see that someone did all the packaging work for these try-before-you-buy packs.

In case of Pianoteq:

I agree that it's super nice. But our daughter (now 14) says she doesn't need it - and in a way I agree; my wife will get a new notebook soon, and our daughter will get hers. That one has 8GB of main memory, so it's capable of running something like Salamander or like the (also commercial) xln audio Studio Grand we have already (this came with my Focusrite Interface, for Win/Mac of course). I thought piano modeling would probably be a clever solution for her much older single core Celeron (2GB main memory) which she has now, but we can give that one to charity then... :)

I also don't have a proper keyboard close to my computer anymore, it's just bass playing here. Our daughter has the notebook on her Yamaha Arius (which doesn't even have proper audio out jacks, sadly - we could try the headphone jacks if we'd want the internal sounds/samples which are quite good). And maybe Pianoteq would still be nice for her, as you can have the notes ring out for much longer than with any sample of course. Also having 128 velocity steps would surely be an advantage.

Hope that answers/explains it a bit.

Cheers,
Wolfgang